Time for being hot...it's summer!So what's the deal with a "Boy Toy" bloghop. Well, it's dedicated to the men in our lives. Doesn't have to be a boyfriend or husband..... maybe a soldier, a father, or just a masculine theme or card.

Bombshell stamps have always been great for "manly" things, but now more than ever.Just think about the new digi clothes stamps for the Bombshell Angel. The policeman, fireman, etc... they are GREAT for sending out that perfect card.AND MAN...the new motorcycle stamps !!!Perhaps your project will just use masculine colors

The SECOND way to win is with Miss June's (Cajunstampingqueen) special challenge the Memory Lane Challenge.

Hello My Lovlies! I am the Guest Designer and challenge hostess for the month of June! I've got a special challenge lined up for this month and I hope everyone decides to play along. I have decided to alter a box this month, a Memory Box.

We all at some point in time have received little notes from the kids or hubby or favorite neice/nephew that we couldn't bear to part with. Or that little drawing that came home from school, the first art project that you still don't really know what it is but you love it all the same...that special something from someone important to you. I have so many of those things from my kids that I want to display and i am running out of room to do so, sooooooo I decided to make a box for them. Well several boxes actually. This is the one I started with....my children love Bombshell stamps, they are 15 and 11....anyway they each got to choose which set represented them the most(in their opinions) and I went from there. I have added paint, decorative paper, pictures, I even used the first quitar string we had to replace on my daughters guitar and the beads my son painted for me from his favorite book series last month!!!

28 June 2010

27 June 2010

I've been playing with my Grungepaper making some of those gorgeous rosesusing my Sizzix tattered floral die!
Well I'm not the only one who's been creating with Grungepaper!
I introduce to you the world's first crafting Beagle!!!

22 June 2010

I've loved looking at shrines that other people have created and wanted to 'have a go' but didn't really have a clue where to start! So to give me a kick start I decided to sign up for a small swap on a forum! Talk about throwing myself in at the deep end- I hadn't a clue!!

So I pootled off to one of my fave blogs by Effie to have a peruse of her shrines and get some ideas!

So where to start? Efemera had recommended using foam core board to create a box for the shrine so I went off to our local art shop and bought a HUGE A1 piece for about two quid! The foam core board is light and strong and is about 1/4" thick so it makes a great box!

I used double sided tape to attach the sections of foam core board together:

...adding shelves as I needed:

I then covered the whole shrine with torn pieces of Dictionary pages (DO be careful to check for rude words!!). I used a spray on glue to stick the paper on- as it was dry straight away, no waiting around for glue!

I then used Distress Inks to colour the shrine. I squidged a foam pad onto the ink pad then rubbed the colour onto different parts of the shrine.

When the ink was dry I stamped a swirly stamp onto the shrine and added gold embossing powder which I heated carefully with my heat gun.

Next it was time to create the 'story' for my shrine.

This is a window into my VERY strange brain- but I based my shrine on a dream I had...about moths and buses and West Drayton, don't ask *chortles*

So I found or made items that would tell my story and assembled them on the shelves. I wanted it to look like the jumbled, over stuffed shelves of a Victorian museum (like the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford!) full of a weird, eclectic mix of items!

Here are some close-ups of the shelves and the bits and pieces!

So there's my first shrine! I was pleased with it and surprised how easy it was to make! Making it was much easier than the worrying about making it that I did before hand!

I found the process of filling the little shelves really fun and it certainly got the mojo flowing- in fact I have another shrine in the planning stage already! I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with shrines!

20 June 2010

Photo of my Pops upcountry in Malay 1966'ish he served in the RAF for 22 years.
I've used the wonderful Bombshell Digital 'Dad' image which is FREE and can be downloaded HERE just log into the forum with the password 'newsletter'
Miss you Dad!
kt xx